Brown's Watson Institute to sponsor forum on NSA spying

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Experts from the government and private sector will gather on Dec. 4 at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies for two panel discussions of surveillance by the National Security Agency. Watson Institute visi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Experts from the government and private sector will gather on Dec. 4 at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies for two panel discussions of surveillance by the National Security Agency. Watson Institute visiting scholar Timothy Edgar, whose career has involved him deeply in security issues, will moderate both panels.

The conference, "Big Transparency for the NSA: Perspectives on Spying and Privacy," begins at 12:30 p.m. at the Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum, 111 Thayer St.

"The conference will examine the continuing explosive revelations about the American intelligence community's global operations and the resulting crisis in public trust and confidence," a Brown media release states.

"It will also explore the equally historic, if less discussed, shift toward transparency that the government's defense of these operations has involved, including significantly lifting the veil on the secret FISA court and releasing detailed information about the intelligence community's privacy and compliance regime that was previously classified at the highest levels."

Edgar is a civil liberties lawyer whose career has included jobs with the American Civil Liberties Union and administrations of Presidents Obama and George H. W. Bush. His views were published in a July 27 installment of eWave, The Journal series, as part of a package of stories exploring privacy in the digital age.

The first panel, "Privacy and Transparency, Inside and Out," features John DeLong, the NSA's chief compliance officer; Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's deputy legal director, American Civil Liberties Union; Alexander W. Joel, civil liberties protection officer, Office of the Director of National Intelligence; and Steven Aftergood, Federation of Atomic Scientists, publisher of Secrecy News.

The second panel, "Transparency -- What Good Is It?" features Charlie Savage of The New York Times, Ellen Nakashima of The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal's Siobhan Gorman.

The conference is free and open to the public. More information, including a link to a live webcast of the conference, is available on the Watson website. With space limited, advance registration is encouraged. Email the institute.